PORTABLE DRUG TEST FOR STUDENTS TO GET TRYOUT IN PALM BEACH COUNTY

Move over, drug-sniffing dogs. Now Palm Beach County school officials
are using aerosol sprays and paper swabs to quickly weed out high
school students on dope.

Administrators at all 23 county high schools are being trained to use
a new drug test whenever they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a
student is using illegal drugs, based on appearance or bad behavior,
said schools Police Chief Jim Kelly.

The school district is one of 22 across the country, and the only one
in Florida, taking part in a free trial program that puts the drug
detection kits in schools. It's supported by a $650,000 grant from the
federal government's National Institute of Justice, Kelly said.

The test, similar to what's used in airport security, works by rubbing
a sticky paper on a student's body or possessions, then spraying the
paper with chemicals. If various colors appear, it means there is
evidence of marijuana, heroin, Ecstasy, or several other drugs. The
results are "instantaneous" and highly accurate, said Kelly and the
product's manufacturer, the Mistral Group of Bethesda, Md.

"It's the least intrusive search I can think of," Kelly said. "You can
do someone's fingers, a book bag, different things."

When a test is positive for drugs, the student's parents will be
notified. No other action or prosecution will occur unless the drugs
are found from a search, Kelly said.

The district has no other formal testing program, other than
dispatching drug dogs to campuses when drug use may be suspected.

Broward schools have no programs to test whether a student has been
using drugs other than observation, officials say.

Palm Beach County officials stress that their new program is not
random testing, which has been more controversial.

"[The new tests] are another tool, another resource to help our
students remain drug-free," said Kathleen Perry, principal of Olympic
Heights High west of Boca Raton. Her school was one of the first
campuses to get the drug detection kits, which have a retail price of
$239 and can test 100 students.

Kelly said the tests were delivered to the Boca Raton area high
schools and Atlantic High in Delray Beach and are in the process of
being sent to all county high schools. They have alerted officials to
drug use on at least one occasion so far, he said.

The testing doesn't sound fair to Adam Jacobson, a 10th-grader at
Atlantic High.

"I know there's a bad drug problem in the schools," he said. "But I'd
feel more comfortable if they asked the parents' consent first. It's
crossing the line."

Bruce Harris, parent of an Olympic Heights 10th-grader and former
chief counsel for the school district, likes the testing as long as it
doesn't violate constitutional rights. "Something needs to be done to
keep drugs off campus," he said.

Nationwide, 51 percent of high school seniors have used illegal drugs,
according to an annual survey financed by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. The percentage has fallen from almost 55 percent in 1999.

The Supreme Court has allowed random drug testing of middle and high
school students involved in extracurricular activities.

The White House sees testing students as a way to fight drug addiction
by deterring drug use, steering users to treatment and protecting
their peers from their influence. Administration drug czar John P.
Walters compares it to requiring tuberculosis tests of students
entering public school.

"Nobody considers that a civil rights violation. Essentially, it's a
sound public health policy," Walters, director of the federal Office
of Drug Control Policy, said in an interview Thursday.

But the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics say the
opposite. The ACLU has challenged random school drug testing as
invasive, unconstitutional and ineffective.

"As a policy matter, violating students' rights while doing nothing to
reduce the amount of drug use in schools makes little sense," ACLU
drug policy chief Graham Boyd said in a news release last year.

If a student in Broward schools appears to be under the influence of
drugs, an administrator is expected to contact the child's parent,
perhaps call the hospital and in some situations, notify police, said
schools Police Supervisor Charles Rawls and Personnel Administrator
Richard Mijon.

Random drug testing and searches of lockers or backpacks without
probable cause is not allowed. But if administrators have reason to
think a student is in possession of drugs, they can search that
student and their belongings, Rawls and Mijon said.